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Monday, 17 October 2011 |
WGM Anna Sharevich comments on the 8th round games
 In the 8th round the winner of the tournament was almost defined. While Zhao Xue won her 7th game, the persecutors sorted out relations with each other.
Munguntuul Batkhuyag – Ju Wenjun
Yesterday’s draw against Tatiana Kosintseva inspired the Mongolian
player. Without any time losses the girls made first 20 moves in the
Najdorf variation. If you looked at their clocks at that time it was
like 3-4 minutes more than in the beginning. In some moment white
afforded 25...е4 and the pawn passed to e3. But Tuul found the way how
to take under control the white squares – she changed the knights and
put the pieces on the right places. The game transferred to an
interesting endgame – the rook and the bishop against the rook and the
bishop with an extra pawn for white. Thanks to the tricky move 47.Ra6
Tuul converted her advantage into a victory. She won the endgame the
queen and the f-file pawn against the rook and g-file pawn easily.
 Zhao Xue – Kosintseva Nadezhda
The leader of the
tournament continues her victorious procession. This time the victim
became the elo-favourite of the tournament Nadezhda Kosintseva. In the
fashionable variation of Queen’s Indian the Chinese got the position
with the minimal advantage. But the pressure in the centre of the board
increased. Soon the real battle started. After the move 18…Bd5, followed
by the typical piece sacrifice 20.Bh6. But that’s was only the
beginning. Zhao decided to win not only the tournament but also our
contest for the most brilliant move of the round - 21.Rd4!? Finally
Nadezhda couldn’t sustain the pressure of the Chinese: she made some
incorrect moves and didn’t notice the intermediate move 28.Bd8. The
black’s position collapsed as a house of cards.
 Lahno Kateryna – Kosintseva Tatiana
The
duel between two former European champions didn’t become the most
exciting in the 8th round. It proceeded in a quiet key. It was the first
draw in the round. The Nimzo-Indian defence appeared in the game. White
gained some advantage because of two bishops. But after the queens were
changed, it became clear that probably Tanya will save the position
easily.
“To be objective I had good chances for the victory, - the Ukrainian
grandmaster said, - but I lost some interesting opportunities, while my
opponent protected tenacious...”
 Galliamova Alisa – Cmilyte Viktorija
An interesting and fighting game. Viktorija played the Benoni
defence and rather quickly got a huge advantage. White wasn’t in an
envious situation – all the pieces were situated on the first two lines.
“I was afraid almost after every move, - Alisa smiled, - I have not
repeated this variation for a long time and tried to find the right plan
during the game”. Viktorija admitted that her position had been much
better with many perspective plans and ideas, which she had simply
missed.
 Kovalevskaya Ekaterina – Kosteniuk Alexandra
The second Alexandra’s victory on the tournament and the revenge for
the first stage of Grand Prix, where the former world champion lost the
game to Ekaterina in the last round.
This time Katya chose the Reti opening where Alexandra hadn’t showed
good results before. But Kosteniuk, who seems to fight against the fate
on this tournament, crashed this tradition. The complex and strained
battle in the middle of the game, the fight in a time trouble, equal
ending – everything appeared in this game of Alexandra.
But probably that wasn’t Katya’s day and finally black used the
opportunity 49...Nc4 and won the game. Maybe after this victory we’ll
see real Alexandra again. There are 3 rounds ahead – the time to show
all your best!
 Zhu Chen – Antoaneta Stefanova
The duel of two former world champions was the last one to end in
the 8th round. Anyway the game made Antoaneta’s fans worry and in the
end simply be disappointed with the result because of the second loss in
a row. The Slav defence transferred to the Catalan direction. After
the move 12.е4 the concrete and complex play started.
“In a time trouble I made some strange moves, - Antoaneta shared with
the journalists, - after that I got the drawn endgame, which practically
happened to be quite complicated. But we played for a long time and in
the end I got into a time trouble again and missed everything”.
“I was very lucky in the end! – said Zhu Chen. – To be honest I didn’t see how to win in that position”.
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